Gary Haller spent years on the Overland Park City Council pushing for more connected green space. The trail that now bears his name runs about six miles along a tree-lined corridor between 159th Street and 103rd Street, loosely following the path of an old railroad grade. Most people who use it don’t know that history. They’re just glad it’s there.
The trail starts — or ends, depending on your direction — near the Antioch Park trailhead off 91st Street, where a small parking lot fills up fast on weekend mornings. From there, the path runs south through a mix of residential neighborhoods, crossing quiet streets with well-marked crosswalks, ducking under a few overpasses, and opening occasionally into stretches where you can see the sky properly. It’s paved the whole way, wide enough for two cyclists to pass without drama, and reasonably smooth except for one stretch near 135th where some tree roots have started to win their argument with the asphalt.
On a Tuesday morning in October, the crowd is a specific cross-section of the city: a retired couple walking a beagle at a pace that suggests they have nowhere pressing to be, a woman in scrubs power-walking like she’s burning off a night shift, three teenagers on fat-tire bikes who aren’t quite sure of the rules. There’s a rhythm to it that feels genuinely local — not curated, not Instagrammed.
The trail connects to the broader Johnson County trail network at several points, including a link toward Tomahawk Creek if you know where to look. Most casual users stick to a two- or three-mile out-and-back, turning around somewhere near the 119th Street crossing where there’s a bench and a decent view of an open field that somehow hasn’t been developed yet. If you’re a runner training for something longer, you can string together a proper long run by crossing into adjacent trail segments without much interruption.
What makes the Gary Haller Trail stand out among Overland Park’s many paved paths isn’t any single feature. It’s the tree cover. On a hot August afternoon, the canopy along the middle sections keeps the temperature noticeably lower than the surrounding neighborhoods. That matters in Kansas in summer. You’ll find runners and cyclists who specifically time their workouts around the shaded sections here rather than going somewhere flashier but more exposed.
There’s no fee to use the trail. Parking is free at the Antioch Park lot and at a smaller pull-off near 127th Street. Dogs are welcome on leash. The surface is accessible for most adaptive equipment, though a few of the road crossings have curb cuts that could be better maintained.
It’s worth noting that the trail sees enough regular users that you’re rarely alone, which matters for folks who want the feeling of being outside without being isolated. Families with young kids on training wheels show up in the late afternoon. The early morning belongs to the serious runners.
Gary Haller, for what it’s worth, was known as someone who cared about the ordinary, functional parts of city life — sidewalks, parks, the connective tissue of a neighborhood. The trail named for him is exactly that kind of place. Not spectacular. Just good. And well-used, which is the real measure of whether a public space worked out the way someone hoped it would.
